Taco Policy

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (00:00)
She spent every waking moment that she wasn't here at 4 a.m. getting the taco shop going to advocating in the East End, putting up town halls, registering voters, starting schools, all this really cool stuff.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (00:12)
And for people who don't know, Howdy is also one of the recipients of the Boats of America Innovation Fund. That's how we got Taco Policy and are going around the state to do this. it is about, you know, they're actually investing in Texas.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (00:25)
decide to fight in Texas? Why do we choose this battle? It's because it's something we believe in and one of the best things that I, one of my favorite quotes that has motivated my life is, courage is not the absence of fear but the understanding that there is something greater than fear. And that's how I feel about running as a Democrat in Texas. You don't need to change the whole world as one person. You need to change only one other person's mind and now you've doubled the minds of people who think like us.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (00:54)
Welcome to another episode of Taco Policy, where people, politics, and power collide, Texas style. I'm Kat Vargas, the voice behind Howdy Politics, and every week I'm traveling across the state to meet with different elected officials, organizers, and everyday Texans working to make change in their communities. Over tacos, we'll dig into recent news, the fights shaping Texans, and what you can do to get involved. So make sure that you subscribe, whether you're watching us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to follow us. You won't want to miss what's coming.

up on this episode. I traveled down to Houston to meet with the executive director of Annie's List, one of the premier organizations in Texas that's doing the absolute best work to make sure that we have candidates running up and down the ballot to be competitive. Let's go. Well we are here in Houston with Isabella Mboria of Annie's List and we're actually at a really cool taco shop so I you wanted to like before we get into your role and things share about where we are.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (01:50)
Yeah, we are on the east end of Houston in the on navigation, which is famous for being the fajita margarita central of Houston. They like to say they started it. That's a whole nother debate we won't get into. But what makes this corridor so cool is NINPA is one of the big fajita places was started by Mama NINPA, who back in the day was just a single mom who started making fajita tacos to get more money for her family and over time really started getting involved in politics in the East End as she's trying to

started business. No one's really paying attention to her in Houston at the time, especially like a young Latina mom. She ends up getting in with the Bush's and over time being like one of the people who started LULAC being this big kind of like moderate Republican women getting people involved in politics. ⁓ Yeah, that's ninfas like the ninfas fajitas like is mama ninfa. ⁓ And then not too long or about the same time ⁓ over here at Villa Arcos. I believe it was the

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (02:37)
No idea.

Wow.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (02:50)
One of the grandfathers started the coffee shop.

⁓ But more famously in my generation is Yolanda Black Navarro. When I started out here in politics in the East End, everyone's like, you've got to meet Yolanda. She runs a taco shop. And you're like, OK, you know, sure, whatever. What does this lady have to talk about? She spent every waking moment that she wasn't here at 4 AM getting the taco shop going to advocating in the East End, putting up town halls, registering voters, starting schools, all this really cool stuff. And now the third iteration is just down the street again.

and Dona Maria's run by this couple who's a retired firefighter and his wife's a retired, I think, teacher. And they run just the coffee shop that like, if you're in Latino politics or organizing every day at 6 a.m., the kind of like old LULAC folks are there with the younger folks doing Latino politics. And so it's really interesting that you're doing this taco thing here in Houston is like, tacos and politics have always been a thing in the East End.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (03:47)
Yeah, and I want I did not know all that. That is really cool. I think this is probably one of my favorite episodes now just because of that like a little bit of trivia and so but it's true. It's like you know tacos are such a natural part and you know with Lulac they do stuff like these in Dallas at least now is for with you like these chorizo breakfasts once a month that are really great and it's just you know getting together over food and talking about this. It's just a more. I think we need to get back to that more just in our like obviously if we're very like immersed in this and and Texas

politics, but we need more people just being like, you know what, I'm going to sit at the table and talk about it. Because I think we have this thing, especially as women, where we're told not to talk about it, that it's not polite, it's not respectable. it is. are, you when we're talking about kitchen table issues especially, it's a better way than like at the kitchen table, like over tacos or going out and supporting local businesses that are really hurting right now. So thank you for that awesome bit of trivia.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (04:40)
But I love the idea

of like talking and eating over the dinner table. ⁓

There's a couple of other stories that I've held in my life where I have wanted to start in Houston, a club where we just meet for dinner like the young politicos, because I think what we see in every major city too is, you know, we on the left as we're trying to create a big tent organization, there is still a lot of Latinos versus black individuals versus Asian folks, first generation, seventh generation, right? There's still kind of this grouping off that I've always wanted to just have dinner with people. Cell phones down, no posting about it. Can we meet?

quietly and talk face to face and that was based off an idea that in Congress I was learning that one of the big things they used to do is like all eat together in the cafeteria and one of the things that insiders talk about as like having created more factions or divide is they don't eat together in the cafeteria anymore.

So like when you're sitting down with like a Republican or Democrat, you're gonna talk about stuff. And then the biology of like, you're eating, you're being satiated, the dopamine, the serotonin, you're not hangry, you're not worrying about your next meal. You're literally being satisfied on a chemical level to then be able to talk to each other openly and honestly.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (05:54)
So it's like a political supper club. maybe that's what Annie List should come out with. I think that's a really actually great organizing. Well, it's also people are really wanting to find community right now and it's so hard. We're very siloed online. Everyone's really busy and it's hard. And a lot of our areas too where you feel like you're the only blue dot. And I hear that in Collin County where I live and I'm like, there's a lot of us. You're not like a little blue dot, but people just don't know. And they don't know there's people from like their kids' school who

have the same values as they do.

that are like really interesting. even if you guys don't start it, maybe some how do you doers will like start up some supper clubs. Like I think that's like the best idea. But thank you so much for joining us on our third episode of Taco Policy, where we're going to be traveling around the state. And you were one of the people I was like top of my list to get to. That's why we were with you so early on in the season. And you have just been named the executive director of Annie's List, which is one of the

organizations doing the most work in Texas, really important work, know, especially with recruiting, you know, female candidates and really giving them support that they need. ⁓ But just really, like, the ground game, everything that y'all are doing is so great. So I don't know if you want to, like, tell us a little bit more about yourself, your new role, you know, like, what is Annie's List doing for people who aren't familiar with Annie's List?

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (07:21)
And I'm a yapper, so you're going to need to like cut me off so I can eat some tacos here. yes, so you know, I'm Isabelle Longoria. She her born and raised in Houston. My parents are immigrants and I totally fell into politics as backwards. ⁓ We left the curse on. OK, great. ⁓ I was convinced in college that I was going to be in ⁓ the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders or worldwide organization of organic farmers. You know, something like.

cool nonprofit hippie stuff and I 100 % followed a girlfriend to grad school. She ended up dumping me there. I am in Austin at the public affairs school. It's like business school for Democrats. I don't know what I'm going to do. I get an internship with Jessica Ferrar. This is really important. I started checking her mail and she's like you're so good at checking mail. Do you want to come back and work at the session? And I was like fine. I'll steal the government's money. I'll use it for beer. Great that ended up being 2011. This little thing called the tea party.

had just built up and had primaried and run people in primaries and run people in races who had no experience, no background. They were really just like people who were upset with what the Republican Party was doing, the family values, the whatever. Whatever you feel about them, they won a lot. And so here I am working for the head of the Democratic caucus.

She puts me on the ⁓ women's caucus and for the first time in decades, because Texas up to that point was 50-50, for the first time in decades, the Republican legislature brings up an anti-abortion bill. And I get to write for Carol Alvarado, the jelly on the famous jelly on the belly talking points. And I was totally hooked. I mean, I think I barely voted for Obama, you know, involved before that. And after that, I was also, you know, these big issues are happening.

right, abortion, the choice issues, the affordable housing, the environment, immigration, it's all getting rolled back in 2011. And I just realized like, why am I gonna send myself abroad? The fight is here in Texas. The fight is right here in the capital. I could use all of my willpower to go start organic farming, which is fantastic. But at that time as well, I was only one of five.

out staffers in the entire capital. There's got to be a thousand people working on staff. One of only a few people, my dad's from Laredo, who could speak Spanish that was outside of the valley, which was like, annoyingly mind blowing at that point. They're like, my God, you speak Spanish. And I was like, that's it. I'm staying here. And so, I mean, it's a long story that that tracks with what Annie's List was doing as well. Annie's List started 20 years ago as the organization to just get more women elected to the Texas House and Senate.

⁓ It has evolved to be a recruitment organization, a training organization.

⁓ On the PAC side and a couple of years ago, we opened a C4 to really focus on that recruitment and training, which we can get more into later. ⁓ And we've expanded, right? It's not just about getting women elected to the Texas House and Senate. We are looking at programs that I know we're partnering on is how can you get ⁓ women elected to school board in rural areas along the coast? How can you work not just in the RGB?

but in the big like, you know, all the way to Marfa, all the way to El Paso and ask women like, you only need to convince 500 voters here. We're gonna help you find that thousand dollars. We're gonna help you learn how to run a campaign in just three hours. Whatever you wanna do, we're there with you. So that's the big, that's the big picture. ⁓

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (10:55)
Very interesting story.

I love like Texas like house war type stuff because I'm such a nerd. And even though like when I started howdy like I didn't have a professional background and all this, but I had followed the ledge for a really long time. And 2011 like I was in college, I was going to St. Mary's and San Antonio and like for my classes, I had to like watch it was happening the ledge. So it was an interesting year and it was it was like abortion suddenly became a thing where like no one wanted to touch it before. And we've seen like since then it's obviously gone in a different direction where.

they're more than willing to touch it. right now the work has really, I don't want to say that it's changed since what happened in 2024, but it has. We are seeing trends that we thought were going to hold, you know, whether it's from Latino voters or women shifting, seeing things that didn't happen the way we thought they would in 2024. And we had been on this trajectory in Texas where we thought we were going to flip after 2018 and 2024 we actually went in reverse.

We lost lot of the games that we had made. It's a tough time to be organizing. And I know a lot of organizations have to look at, how are we gonna meet this moment? So what is it that Annie's List is doing different to meet this particular moment that we are in, in this Trump era?

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (12:10)
I mean, first and foremost is not giving up. Someone asked me this the other day is ⁓ what motivates you to keep working in Texas politics? know, and I'm interspersed in my story here, but I have never in my lifetime, never in the 14, 15 years I've been working in politics, have known a Democrat elected official at the statewide level. That's not why I got in this because I think we're winning anytime soon, right, et cetera. What comes to mind is the Kennedy speech. And like, I don't look up presidential speeches,

this one was fascinating. Kennedy comes to Houston and he's trying to get the American people to allow him to spend billions of dollars on going to the moon, which at that time seemed like a dumb idea, right? We're got to take care of housing. We got to take care of health care. Why would we spend our money on going to a cold rock in space? So he's at rice, he's giving the speech and he says, why does man decide to climb Mount Everest? Why do we explore the ocean? Why does rice play Texas in football?

because we choose to.

We at Annie's List are choosing to continue living by our values of getting more women elected and helping the progressive infrastructure. Because until my dying day, whether there's just one last Democrat who can run, whatever comes next in the violence, I am standing by the person who believes in equality, in fairness, in housing, in environment, in all of the values I care about. That's what we're doing at Annie's List. And I don't mean to say that in a defeatist way, but truly like this is not an organization that's just in it for the

wins, we are in it to get more women elected to leadership because they're just better leaders and we're in it to fight for the things we care about. And I think that's where the moment we're in is more people are seeing the fight become more real and are now kind of joining us more and more in good, bad or indifferent. We're going to be Texans who fight.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (14:01)
And I think where Annie's listed on howdy politics were very similar is we are not setting people up to say like hey In November everything's gonna change and we're gonna be like we're gonna win every single race and we're gonna be the bluest state like watch out California like that's not we come in with a very realistic of We are playing a long game here and it's going to take a long time to fully reverse the state Do I think we can win some statewide seats? Absolutely. Do I think we can flip some seats in the house? Absolutely

But it's, I don't ever want to mislead people into thinking this work isn't going to be hard. And that some of this work we are not going to see the fruits of for a long time. And like one of the people I think about a lot is Dolores Baraka who in her nineties and like is still showing up and still fighting for things that you know at her age now, she's fighting for a future that she will never see. And she's still showing up. And so I think about her a lot. Like I know like, like the day after the election, I was like on the couch inconsolable.

I didn't move, like rotted, I didn't shower or anything. And I happened to, ⁓ something from her had come up. And I was like, you know what? I wasn't ready to get off the couch yet. But I said, if she's up.

in her nineties, I will get up, si se puede. I kind of keep, don't like to go back to election night, but the day after the election, I try to go back to that moment of being like, no, I said I was going to get up. I'm going to keep going up. If she's going to fight for a future that she won't realize, I can fight for something that might take us five years, 10 years, because I also look at the shift in Texas where, you you're a legend like me. I think people outside of that bubble don't realize Texas was not always as extreme.

We've really seen that shift in the last 10 years and turbocharged in the last five. And that took them those 10 years to really build that. Which means we can also build something in five, 10 years. And depending on the work we put in is how much we can turbocharge that. So I do have a lot of hope in that. But you shared a statistic with me that I was amazed by when we were inside ordering. And one of the things you said, Annie's List obviously, when it comes to training camp and stuff, you're known as.

you know, with electing more women. That's not the only thing you focus on. You do work on other races as well. ⁓ But you brought up a statistic about, you know, we hear a lot, whether it was the top of the ticket with Harris. Well, it's just, you know, it's going to be a man. And we see this down ballot. when Roman have a hard time, whether it's imposter syndrome, if you're like, no, no, they're going to, they're more likely to vote for a man. And you told me that wasn't true. Like, can you share that data with me some more? that, that's.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (16:42)
For sure. of mind now. This is before working at Anisys. This is like a well-known thing amongst campaign folks is that if you have a race and you put a man versus a woman, the woman gets, and to be clear, you know, a name that sounds feminine or a woman's name on the first read, right? The woman gets a one to two percent bump alone from just man versus woman if people knew nothing else. I don't remember where that study is, right, but we are seeing it time and time again that we know that more women tend to come

out and vote period. And a bump. We know this from are, who's one of the kind to the Democratic Party is women and latina women vo appears. So even if latina trending a little more rig groups, etcetera, it's sti likely to come out and vot and it matters. You're

away from the other person, maybe not. But if you're a Christian Carranza in 118, who's like literally a 50 50 district on the cusp, you want whatever one to 2 % advantage you can get.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (17:53)
Yeah,

and it is a lot of our house races are that close or should be that close if we can fund them properly, if we can get them in programs like Annie's List, you know, if we're running the right people and if voters show up, and I don't mean showing up in November to vote. I mean, like, we're about to be in primary season, starting to get involved in knocking on doors, talking to people. But really saying like what I've been telling people is 2026 is a huge

year and we'll decide so and for our nation and go all the brunches now. Like your most with you to go knock recommend taking a whole p ahead and take it to go. like, all right, like on some doors and ma in time before brunch clos make it back. But it's, has to do a little bit mor last cycle. I say that e little bit more and I lo

like what more are you g have that for myself as we do have to demand mor that I think sometimes we thought of and I defini I thought organizers or eve know that we're at Bloc is so great and I remember part of what started Howl loss in 2022 for Governor. event and people are comi

and I just started snapping at people and I'm like I carried around a damn clipboard and like asked people to go vote like I that's not a hero there's no cape like you could have done it what were you doing and my husband was like hey like you can't be like yelling at people at church like that's not that's not how we're gonna win ⁓

Yeah, he like we're have like some productive rage and so that's become one of like how these taglines as well But it is we've all got to show up more and we have to do things differently as well and one of the things that Annie's List is doing differently This has been pretty widely publicized is the partnership with vote save America and for people who don't know Howdy is also one of the recipients of the vote save America innovation fund That's what how we got taco policy and are going around the state to do this But it is about you know, they're actually investing in Texas ⁓ Which is always one of my chief

complaints to tell you a more about the story. was actually on a panel with them and I was like, well, we need more people like you investing in Texas and they were like, okay. Sure. Yeah. And I was like, oh, okay. I thought I was being a little spicy there but they said, we're partnering with Annie's List and I knew when they said that I was like, yes, I will like this is absolutely something that is needed to bring in kind of that national focus. You know, they have the national audience they have and I think it says

a lot that, you know, the Pod Save brand, know, Vote Save America, that they're behind Texas and they see the shift that's happening, you know, whether these new maps or once the census comes out, know Texas is going to gain more seats and blue states are going to be losing seats. Texas becomes a lot more important. And so there's groundwork that has to start happening now here. And then part of that is going to be with Annie's List. Like, can you tell me more about that, you know, the partnership that you guys have ⁓ here in Texas?

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (21:09)
Yeah, shout out to VSA. Let's take a step back in our magical time machine on how candidate recruitment has happened up to this point. And even for the early days of Andy's List, to be fair, establishment, either Democrat or Republicans, for many years.

were doing the thing where ⁓ who's going to run for, you know, house district, whatever it is, 100. And they would go and ask other political people, well, who do you know? And they're like, well, well, you know, I've talked to this lawyer or I think this person is going to jump in. It was just so passive. And it usually was, tends to be, right?

lawyers or doctors who have jobs that they can leave six months every two years when they need to go to the Texas Capitol. Usually men who jump in who, you know, we all know are coded for ambition and that's super great. But from an anti-Sys perspective, not a lot of women were jumping in and not a lot of women were jumping in because good, bad or indifferent, they're expected to be the caregivers. And so I get this a lot still is well, you my kids are five and six. I don't want to be a bad mom and miss all these moments in their life. So even if they believe they're

even if it's something they want to do, there's always this caregiver thing. All right. So I came on three years ago, we started a C4 to really think about training. And I think, you know, we caught VSA pretty early in this as well as instead of waiting for women to opt in, to believe in themselves, get over that imposter syndrome that you were talking about, whatever, get to the age where they feel that they're not going to be a bad mom for leaving their kids one night. We said, let's reverse it out.

what can we do and change about our program to get more women able to join us? So for example, instead of having our training events that are two full days every month for six months, that's a lot of time, not just for moms to give up or caregivers, but just young people to give up. You're already working, who wants to give up their whole weekend? No matter how passionate you are, I don't want to give up my whole weekend. So we started doing three hour campaign courses and saying, you know, in three to four hours,

on a Saturday or virtually on the weekday after you put your kids to sleep. Let's give you a crash course in campaigns. If this is something you're kind of interested in, there are other groups, right? There's National Democratic Training Committee, run for something, ARENA, et cetera, who can take you further. So we started shifting how we were doing our training to make sure we are more available to younger families and younger folks. And then on the recruitment side,

⁓ We're working with this other organization, Pipeline Fund, that granted us essentially this database that says, you know, all these groups who've been doing it for 10 or 20 years, they are going to give you their contacts. So contest every race, run for something, National Democratic Training Committee. They have given us the thousands of people they've already trained, put them in the database and VSA, excuse me, Pod Save America said the same thing. We have an audience. They are motivated. They are smart. They are ready to fight.

what can we do to hand them over to you in Texas to get them trained locally? That's the basis of the partnership. They're saying, we know how to get people. We have an interested group here. See if you can talk to them and train them. And then after us, we go to the other groups and say, here's a bunch of folks we've trained, decide who you want to support. And so the fact is, Annie's List, we're not savvy like this. We're not marketers. We're not, you know, the podcasters. We're not, et cetera, that core who can really get the message out. So instead of trying to be

to everyone. We're so excited to like working with you, working with VSA, who are great about getting that message out. My job is to get you trained on the other side and it's someone else's job to support you after that.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (24:53)
I love that because it is, it's very hard. One of my friends, Caitlin Dre, is now Senator Dre in Iowa. And it was a huge flip and it was a mom. But I remember, and I didn't ask if I could share this, but I remember when she was thinking about running and it only lasted for a second, but that imposter syndrome was there and it was like, don't know, I'm going to have to be at our state capitol, that's so many hours drive away, I've got a young daughter.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (25:00)
Congratulations.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (25:23)
something that she did not have, will say, is she had a little bit of imposter, but never did she think she was not qualified. And I have found that that is most women who actually will run. It is not that they doubt that they are qualified. It is the, like you said, how do I do this? You know, and so it's like for her, it was like, hey, I got to talk to my husband. I got to talk to my job, see what logistically has to happen. Obviously, she had to consult with the group chat and see what we all thought. ⁓ And she went for it. But she had built this really global community that people didn't

realize. ⁓ you know, all this talk about it was the DNC came in, they dropped all this money and they did these calls. It is Caitlin that did this work. Like Senator Dre like was putting it in. She was talking to people online. She knew how to talk to Iowans and Annie's List knows how to talk to Texans and so I think when you're training candidates like that's super important because we do have a lot of outside people who can say like hey here's how to fundraise, here's how to do those things but I think knowing like hey this is how things work in Texas and it's a

little bit different sometimes. Sometimes strategy stuff is a little bit different or even terminology is different. Like everywhere else says canvassing, we say block walk. Like it can be confusing when you're going through other programs, things like little things like that matter. So I love that y'all are doing that. I love seeing investment from outside groups in Texas because and that it's not in a way of like we're coming like we are coming in and this is our money and we're going to decide how things happen. Instead they're doing what we've been asking for for decades in Texas.

and saying, you're an organization that is doing amazing work. What do you need? Here it is. And trusting y'all. And I think that says a lot for Annie's List as well, for such a large outside group to come in and say, no, we know that you do the best work and we can trust you with this and your instincts are gonna be right on.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (27:13)
I

truly, mean the fact showing and pipeline fun, national partners and you k about these long term tre are more of us who have w politics who have taken t myself, but to go work on these national groups, with all these national pe back to Texas. Right? I' all the other states have who wants to move back ho

So we're getting out there showing we're professional and we're showing that Texas friendliness I'm learning is our secret weapon. There are other states love them who just aren't as friendly who are a little more protective about who's coming in XYZ. And so one thing I love ⁓ and that we aspire to do at Annie's List is you still have like Latino Victory Funds. They do I think it's four or five national trainings. They'll fly people in for their trainings. They keep coming back to Texas because we help them find the location.

get people to their trai saying, hey, buzz off, out of texas. We're like, come do your training he is cheap to fly to and ea we will help train and wi your metrics as well. And about me is like we will can go um, oh sh saying you can go faster

100%, I think we're finally shifting around in Texas politics to see that, right? And as evidenced by this, Like, maybe I can go faster, but it is more important to go further together than get there faster.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (28:54)
And I love that something that I really focus on and I have like a mental list I keep in my head and you know Annie's list is on the good side of my list of where it's there are It's just a fact that in in Texas politics were I think worse than in national politics in my at least in my experience there are a lot of gatekeepers and it is the smallest fucking pond to want to be king of but people do and

So I'm always looking at who is instead saying I want to build a bigger table and have the attitude of it is going to take all of us. And that's a real great campaign talking point, but not a of people are actually doing that in principle. And Annie's List is where, like you just said, it's no, I will refer someone to someone else. If you're doing that work, why would I need to own it and double it if I'm like, no, that makes sense. We have such limited resources here. Let's outsource what we can. Let's all work together and have it work. And I think that's so important. It's one of the reasons why building tables is so

important and that it's not like even the content creation world. No, I was like it's not a competition like I want like during the forum break there were some smaller creators that I was like let's really focus on using this momentum right now to grow your account and there were some that we were able to double their account and it wasn't I'm not worried about competing with you I can't cover everything if I've got another person who's got a big reach one if I can't cover something I know you can that's great or if we both do that's still a greater reach for us in total some people just don't like me maybe they're gonna like your voice better.

⁓ Maybe you tell funnier jokes than I do. Whatever it is, it all helps. And so I think that is it. It's really great, really important. And I do think...

it's a stereotype, but can be true that with women sometimes there is even more of that gatekeeping. what I have noticed is some of that is because of how hard you have to work to kind of break into this. And so you sometimes feel like those that are coming up behind you, like, no, you've got to earn it and, you know, earn your keep and things. And that sometimes keeps people from running. And it does cause that imposter syndrome. People think that, you know, like before you and I had chatted, was like, man, you have like the most, and you do now have the most extensive

But I thought you'd always had this like great amazing experience and I'm like this is this expert and then we told me your story and then I was just like You know, I had worked in the ledge and I just kept showing up and like for me it was I didn't have professional experience in politics or on social media and I just kept showing up and I have learned even when I'm like sitting at tables, you know in the White House in the last administration I'd be sitting with someone who was the same thing that just showed up And didn't have this whole huge thing. They just care

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (31:28)
Yeah.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (31:32)
and they became an expert on whatever that one little thing was. ⁓ And so how do you work with women who do have that imposter syndrome, who do think, no, I either am a stay-at-home mom or I'm a teacher or I'm an accountant, whatever it is, I'm not a lawyer. Can I do this?

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (31:53)
Yeah,

that's my favorite of person to talk to. There's a there's a candidate, for example, in the Colleen area who ran for county commission. And I'm I'm desperately trying to get her to run for state house. And she is one of those who's got young kids and is really kind of considering. And can she leave, et cetera? And I just double down. I'm like, if not, you who? Right. If not, you when? And, you know, kind of taking it back. ⁓ I don't think it was an accident that when I first started working at the Capitol, it was when the Tea Party was going in. And it is really

always made me think.

barrier to entry for them jumping in on the Tea Party side was low, right? They are equally parents, workers, teachers, etc. who thought, I just don't like what's going on right now. They were scared shitless that the moderate Republican machine would vote them out and they still ran. And what I really want and I use that with folks who are thinking about running on the left, right, is we just need someone to run. So many of these seats could be flipped. We just need a warm body.

at some point and we can get into some of these statistics right is ⁓ if we have no one in that seat then

People like Anas, we have nowhere to put our money. The Democratic Party has nowhere to put their money. If there is no candidate, there is nothing that we can put. Like your friend who ran, right? Yes, maybe the DNC or whatever came in and helped and gave her money. They could only do that because there was a candidate in the race. So for some of our uncontested races, when it comes to school board or city council, especially in our rural areas, I say put your name on the ballot. Even if you don't think you're gonna win that year, winning is not always the goal.

of running a campaign. It might be shocking to hear from Annie's List, especially like in our rural areas. We have folks running, for example, in Beaumont, in Colleen, in Tyler. We're looking into the Denton area, et cetera. And one thing I tell people is you're going to be a magnate, right? Before you jumped in, who was talking in a way? There are some people who are listening here because every other way of communicating to them just didn't work or wasn't accessible. It's the same for running for office. There are some areas

that have never seen a Democrat run on the ballot in my lifetime, in 30, 40 years, because they're scared of losing. If you take that fear away of losing, if I told you you were going to lose every election for the rest of your life, and I still want you to run because you're going to find other women in the area who have said, I was waiting for someone to run. I didn't know where to start. You're going to find other Democrats who are saying, man, I've got money. I never want to give it to the Republican candidate, but I will give it to you. There are going to be organizations like us who are saying, my God,

we have been looking for people to run in Beaumont and Jefferson County for years. Thank God you jumped in because now we can organize around you and build that infrastructure. So at some point, you know, what I tell them is if you're worried about winning, that's the wrong question, right? Why do we decide to fight in Texas? Why do we choose this battle? It's because it's something we believe in. And one of the best things that I, one of my favorite quotes that has motivated my life is, courage is not the absence of fear, but the understanding that there is something great

than fear. And that's how I feel about running as a Democrat in Texas. I even did it myself. I put myself on the line. ⁓ There is something bigger than winning. It's about putting your name on the ballot and saying these are the values that someone cares about in this area. And that's what I share with women.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (35:21)
And

I love it because one, you know, down ballot candidates, it helps our statewide race. So even if you're in a district that like I'm not going to lie to someone and be like, hey, you're not gerrymandered to hell because some districts you just you are. And you still run because it won. It helps with that statewide. It helps what you're talking about to help build coalition for future cycles. You know, but there are races also that are winnable. And I know that you guys have had like some maybe I don't say surprising, but yeah, surprising ones that you guys have like, can you like?

give us some examples of whether it's like a school board or something something you're like hey I'm really proud of this one that we did whether it's because it was in a rural area or because you were supporting you know a Latina candidate who didn't think they could could run.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (36:03)
Yeah, the top that comes to mind right now is Bell County.

So Bell County is clean and the military base around that. About two years ago we had ⁓ Michaela come out to us. There's Don Richardson, longtime teacher, who said I'm running and we said, you know what, we're going to take a chance on you, right? The numbers show this as primarily Republican area, but they were all rallying around Don. They had 20 members coming out from the Democratic club. They wanted to work with her and we're like cool. Will come doing training for you and all the training and these list does.

completely free to those organizations. buy the food, we buy the space. I think we charge something like 10 or 30 bucks, but it's honestly more just to make sure you show up than we're not making money. Okay.

So we go to Bell County and we say, Annie, this will do a campaign one-on-one training. They packed the room, 20 people. They found some people who they had never talked to and they all just organized themselves. And I heard over the next year, the fact that they were going out for dawn, that they had all these block walks. Now you've got crown green. Now you've got Texas organizing project because there were people who were so inspired to run. Then they had that woman I was talking about run for County commissioner. There were a couple of people who ran for their local city council, I think in Harker Heights and ended up winning.

And the whole idea is like, Parker.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (37:21)
No.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (37:22)
No one's, yeah, it's like, it's on no one's map. Sorry, Harker Heights, it's on no one's map. They're doing the good work for the people there. Even more interesting is that Killeen is a military town, and this is a trend that we see flipping as well. The military for many years was recruiting and organizing in primarily low-income black and brown communities. So that means you have even more people who are inspired to public service, who are great at organizing, who are black and brown Asian individuals themselves, and believe in these values of equality.

that are also really pissed off in these military cities that their spirit of public service and dedication is being abused for political purposes, at least more overtly now. And so it's like Tyler, El Paso, San Antonio, Colleen, you've got these kind of, especially women who were in the military bubbling up and now running for office. so, know, Jean Ortiz Jones is a great example in San Antonio. I'm not sure that answered the question, but...

These are the kind of counties where again, any this is not excited because we flip that house leave. And he says is excited that women are stepping up, organizing and leading. And I can say there's a club in Beaumont that is doing the same thing. There are two organizations in the Rio Grande Valley all led by women. And honestly, moms after 2024 who were pissed off jumped in and said, I'm just going to start something and we'll see where it goes. And that starts something happened. And now we're here. And now I get to talk about Belk.

county because those women decided to organize and get to a level where an Annie's List could find them. Not Annie's List went and found a magical person and that magical person became the leader and the savior, etc. We need people to kind of plant their own seeds so then I can come through and water them.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (39:09)
It's so important that organize in rural areas. So I love that we've got to be competing everywhere. And we do need to increase turnout in our big cities because we need Houston. We need y'all to carry us. Dallas, we need y'all to carry us. But we still got to pick up those votes there and people need to have hope in those areas. Another area though that I am really hyper-focused on is down in the valley. And it's an area that at the top of the ticket with Trump, we did see a shift ⁓ going down valley.

We did not, we still did maintain the Valley Lord on the ballot. Even even all words still won the Valley by four points. Still considerable shift from from our betto had us. I don't want to ignore that. But I do think what happens in the Valley is going to decide.

the direction of our state. And we cannot win statewide or even some of these congressional seats unless we decidedly win back Latino voters. Is there work that you guys are doing, whether it's in the Valley or, mean, Latinos are everywhere, we're all over the state. What are you specifically doing for that Latino outreach, whether it's getting candidates or helping the areas that are districts that are 80 % Latino, even if it's, do you have targets?

districts that way I guess what I'm saying.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (40:27)
Yeah,

I'm going to tackle this on a couple of fronts. I think a...

A bubble within Texas politics, even in progressive left-leaning politics, so many of the people who were leading the statewide organizations were either from Austin, Dallas or Houston. And I have seen a shift in the last three to four years of hiring people from the Valley. So again, Isabel Longoria, whose dad happens to be from Laredo, I'm living in Houston, was for many years like someone considered an expert on Latino politics in Houston and beyond. I should not be. I'm happy, right? There's a whole story.

But like, no, it's someone who's grown up in Harlingen and Edinburgh and Brownsville, et cetera, should be who we are talking to and hiring to then lead that work. So I'm very happy to say we've done that on the ANASIS team. I know everyone's doing that. So it's like mind blowing. Hire people from the area, right? Invest in those organizations.

I think the shift is not necessarily that Latino voters flipped Republican. And this might be a little kind of controversial to say. I think it's that we in Democratic politics as a nation, ⁓ we're treating the Latino voters as a given Democrat. And this is, gonna, so I'm gonna say, I'm gonna go back and

we as a democratic left leaning organizations are now understanding that Latinos are persuasion voters who are not locked in and we have to talk about certain issues in a different way than just assuming they're going to vote Democrat no matter what. So I think it's not taking for granted any given group. And I would say that is for the AAPI population as well. ⁓

man, this would be another great episode is like why someone whose family is from El Salvador versus Northern Mexico versus Southern versus Brazil versus Spain, all of the political histories of those different countries creates a much different profile. So just to say someone is Latino is like, I roll in two problems.

In the databases we use to reach out to voters, we do not know how to distinguish right now who is a first generation versus seventh generation immigrant.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (42:39)
that matters.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (42:40)
that matter so much. Everything we know about Latino and Asian voters is not necessarily about what city you live in, but how far you are from the first immigrant. And I think most of us who have this experience is ⁓ you lose your ability to speak, right? The language of that first immigrant as time goes, because you're living here and everything's in English.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (42:59)
For a lot of us

too, like know like for my grandparents, they were beat if they spoke Spanish in school. It was illegal to speak and my grandmother, she would tell me that it was was sucio, which is like that is like it doesn't it translates to dirty, but it's not as dirty. It's like disgusting. And that's how it was treated. If you spoke it in public, it was sucio and you didn't you didn't do it. And so for a lot of us like, you know, then they didn't pass that down. My mom speaks, but it wasn't important, you know, for the grandkids. And she wanted my grandma wanted to talk to us in English and didn't want to

So there's that and it's I think also, you know for me and my family has always been here and So there's a when you only want to talk to you know, my uncle's about immigration and they're like I have no Experience connection about that. Like I want to talk about my health care premiums Or I want to talk about the cost of groceries. And so yeah, I'm so glad you brought that because it's a huge distinction and I don't think People outside of Texas especially like realize that too that a lot of Latinos in Texas

we have always been here. And we don't really know what to call ourselves even. Are we Tejanos? Are we Chicanos? What do we call ourselves?

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (44:05)
Latino,

Hispanic, it's like you're younger.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (44:09)
Yes, because growing

up like your family too is like no no no no they know they're not white they really want to be like we're Texan we're American but you don't know where you fall and so it is it's much harder to Fully get everybody there's different strategies based on the community and everything else and we do have to talk to every voter Regardless of their background about kitchen table issues. That's what we saw was most important to everybody that was I'm hurting I thought I'd be able to feed my kids Who's gonna help me do that? Yeah, and a lot of people are lied to

do see our community waking up to that. ⁓ I'm losing the phrase now, but there's a phrase in Spanish that's, I might be slow, but I'm not dumb. And that's what we're seeing though with Latino voters right now, that it was like, hey, I'm a little slow to catch the lie, but now they've caught it they're not gonna be caught a second time. He's lost that support. The groceries haven't gone down. We're now in the shutdown where it's over. They're wanting to double, triple healthcare premiums for those of us that are looking to have insurance and for those that don't.

that's going to get even worse. So yeah, it's just... ⁓

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (45:13)
It's

all, yeah. So, you know, as a data nerd.

How do we find the first generation versus seventh generation? And it's not just like Democrats haven't figured it out. No one's really figured it. Even when they do the census, they haven't figured out how to track this. that's one thing. We're kind of looking at language presuppositions to see, fine. Another thing is we weren't, Republicans were not running in the Rio Grande Valley for many, right? Because they thought Democrats have this lockdown. They're for sure. Why would we ever run? It's how Democrats are now treating the Lubbicks, the Bones.

these other rural areas, which is why Annie's List and other organizations like Blue Horizon Texas, for example, are saying, we want to run Democrats in rural counties because we just want to see who's going to come out and vote for them. So I think there's another thing there is that the data was bad, not because of Democrats, but because of Republicans. And so, right, like, have you ever talked about like the voter file on here, like how it works? I can do the 10 second crushed. Okay.

to talk about the voter file is, you know, how do we do campaigning in Texas, period, or Republican or Democrat.

⁓ voter information is public information. That means that I can see how, you know, which city you voted in, which elections you voted in, but I can tell you as a former elections administrator, I can never tell who you voted for. But we can make a bunch of assumptions off of the stereotypes of that information, right? So in all of these databases, on all of these algorithms, we can say, if you are a black woman over the age of 50, living in third ward Houston, ⁓ you and you have been registered to

vote since you know 1980 likely to be a democrat o to be a democrat and depen elections you vote were pr out if you're going to or all of the primaries o moon. So democrat and Repo have these big databases figure out and I can, th in campaign. Right. So in every all five million do

people who are between 40 and 60 percent likely to be Democrat, who are ⁓ extremely likely to vote in a March primary during a gubernatorial year, not a presidential year. So I can narrow it down and that's like a hundred thousand people. So now as campaigns, we can focus on those hundred thousand. It's a really long and nerdy way of explaining if you don't have Democrats running in Republican areas, then the algorithms are bad because all those people in rural areas, even if they personally are

Democrats, their voting shows us they're voting in Republican primaries because that's the contested primary. They at least want to vote and have an option and who is the least worst Republican if there are no Democrats to vote for.

So that is a long way of also getting back to the Latino question. Because there were no Republicans running in the valley for many years, there was no data for us to figure out who were the Republicans versus the independents versus the Democrats. So what we're seeing now is there are more Republicans running. The data is becoming better at showing us who are those Democrat versus Latinos versus independents. So we haven't lost Latinos. We're just now better at knowing and figuring out who are the Democrats.

versus independence versus Republicans and now going and talking to them in different ways. I also think a big thing that we are all tracking in politics, no one has the answer to, especially after redistricting is the Trump effect. There are not just Latinos, but people who voted for Trump because they wanted something different. The same kind of people who vote for Bernie Sanders, but Bernie Sanders wasn't on the ballot. And so there is, we've got to be careful and we're all trying to figure out how to adjust. What is people love the Republican party or

people wanted something different. And we are hearing from Latinos that they voted on something different, they had every right to, that was the wrong kind of different. And so they are looking again for something different that is not Trump and not the anti-immigration tearing families apart, spending a bunch of money to build a new ballroom, right? They want the kind of different that is getting them jobs and healthcare and not the boring thing that we've seen for the last 20 or 30 years.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (49:32)
And I know Anees List is not endorsing it and in primaries and things, I don't want to put you on the spot for that, but on this front of looking for something different, you know, and you guys are much more focused on our down ballot, but you know, top of our ticket is going to be the Senate race. And there's a lot of conversation about who do we put up to give that something different to voters. And right now, the two that main people we've got are Colin Allred, who ran last cycle.

in less than a year since he lost. And we've got James Tallarico, state rep from Austin.

who has really just had this huge rise, really since the summer, really like it was, is he gonna run? He's kind of thinking about it. He went on Joe Rogan. And once he went on Rogan, there was no question this man was running for Senate. the views, everyone was going nuts. And so, but they're very different candidates. We saw, I will give all the credit. He's running a much better campaign this cycle. He's actually out and present in communities. Something that he was heavily criticized, you know, last time was that we did not see.

him out in community. seeing that more. But he's seen as much more moderate. There were a of times he took votes with Republicans, including on the border and other issues when we were talking about, you know, trans rights. He's kind of now is not even wanting to talk about it at all. And then you have Tala Rico, who I don't want to he's not this like extreme leftist, but he's come out and said, like, what's happening in Gaza is absolutely wrong. I will not accept APAC money, which is for a lot of people is I want to see the purity test, but it is

when they're looking at. said, I'm not doing that. But he's still pretty moderate. He's known in the house to reach out the other side, see what he can get moving. He has a very calm demeanor about the way that he talks. He's got the whole preacher vibe going on. So there's talk of, okay, can he still reach those moderate people by coming at them from a faith perspective? What are you hearing? Not as Andy's List director,

just as like a Texan and like this conversation and like what do you think having these candidates like says about like where we are as a state and trying to find who can flip one of these seats.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (51:49)
What we what I'm hearing is a Politico guess Annie's List would still love for a woman to jump in. You know, I am very excited that Gina Hinojosa and Vicki Goodwin are going to carry the top of the ticket as governor and lieutenant governor. What we're hearing about the US Senate race and you're right, it's largely Tallarico versus all red right now is exactly what you're hearing. Already did it last time. He's been running for quite awhile. He's been putting money, time and investment. He heard about what he did last time, which was a little too Dallas focus, and he's hiring all the right people.

who are saying, yes, we're going to be out in the in the state. I'm going to go. What's he's like working behind the grill with people. He's collecting those stories. He's absolutely shifting around. So there's something to be said for a guy who's been running no matter if he wins or loses. He keeps putting his name out there to make sure that there is focus on Texas.

You got to give him credit for that. Absolutely. He is a little more moderate. think he is, you know, his stances are true and left. And I think it is an important question to ask ourselves in the same way that Cornyn is a moderate Republican, right? He did not go to the extremes ⁓ that Ted Cruz has.

there is something to be said for a Texas that is still light purple on kind of moderating. And I think Colin's thing is I don't want to go so left right now and then lie to you or you feel lied to that I have to moderate to go into a November and win the state. So firsthand, it's a good question. Would you rather have, you know, kind of a moderate, steady yellow dog Democrat win? Or do you want to take the chance on a Talarico who is, you know, doing the social media thing, trying out this

messaging, being a little more bold, and he is getting more attention for it. We see the same strengths with Jasmine Crockett. We see the same strengths with Mamdani and AOC, et cetera. But that strategy only works if there is a groundswell of people that also vote for him. So I think the Tallarico is like, he's kind of expanding. quite honestly, it's a little too early to tell, right? All the politicos have been watching it. I think voters are just now catching up. They've got their fundraising numbers that came out. I think you're going to really see through November.

in December, them hit their stride as to who they can bring along with those messages. It is a core and will be for the rest of time for any political group. Do you go with a person who's getting more attention, who is speaking truth to the power of what the kind of base of your policy is on the progressive side? Or do you go with the guy who probably by the numbers might have a better chance of winning in November? We also don't know.

what the Trump effect will be on the backlash on Trump, on Maandani, he's in New York, but inspiring young people to say, right, and the socialist and the leftists of saying, we can actually back someone. Look at what's happening in New York if you come out. And so what I love about your message before is if you like what Talarico is saying, show it in some way. Because we can't just sit here and guess as politicos. We need people to start giving us signs. Are you liking his posts, right? Even liking a post,

even following him on social, even sending $5. I'm not asking people to be the $500 donors. It matters just as much. Does he have $1,000,005 donors or does the other guy have whatever the math is, 500,000, $100 donors, right? We look at all of that and truly, truly from the bottom of my heart, it is too early to tell what is gonna resonate with Texans, not just through the primary, but through November as well.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (55:23)
you

Yeah, it's, it seems like it's shifting so much. And it's so surprising to me, you even as we're in the shutdown and the polling is right now, people are blaming Republicans. But most people, I would say, probably aren't even aware that it's happening. ⁓ It's one of those things that, again, when we're in the bubble, it can be very hard and you can feel like, yes, we're winning on this, but it's hard to know outside of that now, the average person who's sitting at home, like what do they know ⁓ about what's happening? And so how will that impact their vote? And there's a lot of time.

between now and November to move on and forget and see those things and it'll pin on what happens with premiums and all those things. So, you we see that we see with redistricting. It's a little bit hard right now on candidate recruitment. People are kind of waiting to see what happens with these maps. They just finished the court case. They're at least hearing the court case this week. So, we'll hopefully we'll be getting updates soon on

how they decide. ⁓ I'm of the opinion that these are going through. ⁓ I hope I'm wrong. ⁓ But I think once that happens, we'll know more about our congressional candidates. Because I know even even incumbents are trying to figure out which district am I going to fall in? Because you know, up in North Texas, we've got

Crockett was drawn out of her seat but could still run in that seat. We've got VC drawn out of his, we've got Julie Johnson. So they're all gonna be kind of competing for these two seats and figuring out who's gonna run for what. Luckily, most of our Democrats have a pretty good relationship with each other. And I know they'll make strategic choices, but makes it harder for the rest of us organizing to know what to expect. ⁓

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (57:00)
And they were intentionally pitted against each other. I want to get that, you know, we just saw this in Austin that Kassar and Lloyd Doggett got drawn into the same district. No one wanted that. Let's all be clear. Lloyd Doggett is a good long-term Democrat who has been a good... talk about straight white dude Democrats. He's been like a good dude. And he was intentionally pitted against Greg Kassar. And we had to make a really terrible decision. I know Greg, he's from Houston. I've known him since high school. I'm not saying that like it shouldn't have been Greg Kassar.

But the Republicans intentionally pitted us against each other. Don't let those fights then, you know, for the folks in Austin, for example, if you're bitter that, you know, Kossar is going to end up running in that seat instead of Doggett, don't forget who the real enemy is. The real enemy is not left versus moderate. The real enemy is left versus.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (57:49)
is right.

I think that's especially, you know, in a good reminder for me beca like so invested in these been very open on howdy is the direction I'm going is decided in March, that's be 100 % behind that nomi still even if you know,

that I've been liked. ⁓ it's not, they're not the enemy. You know, we are, you know, running against on that Senate side against Cornyn who used to be moderate. I don't know that I would call him that now. He doesn't say things. He's very careful in that. Like he knows not to say things out loud that are extreme, but his voting record, he votes the same way that Cruz does now. Yeah. even, yeah, even the bipartisan safer communities actually got all this credit for, and now he's walked back from all of it. He, and it basically said that everything he

No, I didn't know it was doing this. like, you were the one writing the bill. Like I knew people that were like in the room, like working with your office and Murphy's office. Like, yeah, Cornyn had exactly what he wanted in that bill and is now walking it back. That was the first major piece of gun legislation that we passed in this country in 30 years. And that was supposed to be, look, I am moderate. I can do this. But then Trump won again. He didn't even make it very far, you know, to be, you know, leader and everything else. So we have seen.

just kind of fall over.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (59:21)
Fair enough. I'm starting to be desensitized. I'm sorry to be desensitized. I'm like, at least they're not, you know, like calling us bad word. You like at least they're not terrible publicly. So you're right. Their policies are still though.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (59:35)
Yeah, and the reason I pointed out those, think it's like, know, people in my family, they go, it's not as bad or whatever. like, OK, but I guess it's one thing when they're saying things that are terrible and that should be all the flags. But we're just seeing that as a party, they have just completely this time in a way that did not happen in 2016. They have just completely fallen over this time. And I just want to make sure that even listening, you know, has that clear and is careful and how they're talking about things, because I'm also the opinion that Cornyn, I think he's

to come out of that primary. ⁓ I think, you he's already been able to catch up in that early polling, know, the funding for that. you know, the GOP sees Paxton for the liability that he is. ⁓ There was, think it's, I think it's like he would cost like them like two or three times as much money to put Paxton through than it Cornyn. So that's why they're all backing Cornyn. ⁓ And I think he does come out ahead. And so I just want to be very cautious of it for painting him as the lesser of two evils when it's like, how they're

voting is the same and people have to know that Cornyn is something that we don't want in office. It's very different than even Cornyn of 2020. When he was in, you know, I was with the Hagar race and he was like, I don't agree with everything the president does, da da da da da, because he knew that it looked like Biden might win that. And so he was much more careful than he is this time. His wagon is fully hitched now. But talk about a lot of like gloom and talked a lot about

or just that, know, time and it's not going t in Texas. But what is g now in this moment in this sometimes feel so dark, e not been a time that has helpless as what we're our neighbors being, know at school. Uh we have peo

protests and there are people that are afraid to go ⁓ and we're making plans for all right make sure you're using this app to communicate and turn off location and things that like we might have done before but it was kind of like over being over here and now it's like no like people are scared right now.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (1:01:50)
Yeah.

When people get scared, they take action. You know, there's another quote out there that change only happens as much as it hurts. And not that I want us to have gotten to this point of hurt, but we would we were not having these huge no king pro no king's protest two years ago, four years ago, six years ago when us in the political realms were trying to limit ring the alarm bells in 2011. Like this tea party thing is bad. They came in overnight and they are shifting everything. We're screwed for 10 years. Sometimes

it has to hurt enough for people to get engaged. I don't want that.

But here we are and it's hurting enough for people to get engaged that weren't engaged before. So what's bringing me hope is that people are actually getting engaged as this thing as things ramp up. I would be much more scared if things were continuing to ramp up and people were like, ⁓ you know, don't be so alarmist. Don't be so scared. People are saying, no, no, no. I've seen what happened in World War Two and World War One. I've seen what happens in other countries that went fascist. Like we're not going down without a fight. So the fact that more people are getting up and fighting is fantastic.

And, you know, what you were saying and to bring it full circle, right? I don't need you. I don't need everyone to go to the No Kings protest. I think the ACLU came out with something interesting. If we can get at least 3 % of the population of any city to go out to a protest, that that is the flipping point then that they have seen in other countries between descending into fascism and not. So you just need not all 10 of your friends. You need you and one other friend to go to this protest.

And if you've got kids, if you're worried you don't want to do the protesting, great, host a taco dinner and invite those friends who never talk about politics and tell them about the tacos we had today and have the same conversations with them. You know, you don't need to change the whole world as one person. You need to change only one other person's mind. And now you've doubled the minds of people who think like us.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (1:03:45)
⁓ I love it. Like I've got like chills, like literally I've got chills because it is, it's like.

You know, and I've been kind of behind the scenes battling. I'm like, man, you know, how do you takes up a lot of time? We've got a full time job that I do this on top of. Like I had to take time off today and it's hard. And it's like, you know, how much of a difference. But when you said it, like it's, it's just one that you've got that you've got to reach. And now you've doubled like your impact. ⁓ so like I needed to hear that. So I'm sure there's other folks that needed to hear it. Cause there's times where I'm like, I don't know if I like I was telling my husband, like, I don't know if I can keep doing this. Like this is, this is draining. I'm sure even in your position, like it's like, how much more can you give?

because there's a professional side, but it's a lot of your personal that you give when you do this. And there's no turning it off. We were in the mountains over the weekend, so I was able to a little bit because I didn't have Wi-Fi when we were actively hiking. I had to make sure my kids didn't fall off of a mountain, which was actually less stressful than watching our country go off of a mountain and off that cliff. But it is, it's very, very hard. So I knew about hope, so thank you. And for average,

Texans that are listening that maybe they've been involved a little bit or maybe not at all. Is it running? What is it that they can do that you think is the best thing they can do in this?

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (1:05:03)
Well listen, I have to plug Annie's List. We do, we offer if you go to our Annie's List Training and Engagement Fund website, we offer those Campaign 101 classes and it's not just if you're running for office, it's truly like we were talking, how does the database work? How do people campaign? So if you want to be a super volunteer for Tallarico, Allred, Gina, Vicki, whoever it is, I think it's going to help people understand why we are talking and doing things instead of just, you know, like...

It just gives you a better understanding. I am very serious when I say start your own taco dinner, invite other people to tacos. We may never know about it. And for whatever candidates you do or don't like, right, the ones you do give them five bucks. Five bucks goes much further than you would realize. And yes, if you want to learn about all the cool women running for office, Annie's List is here to help you. But I can't say this enough that yes, we want women to run. We are part of coalitions that are making sure that good progressives are running in rural areas. And if you have the time, you

have the effort, you have the passion, put your name on the ballot in uncontested areas. We can't do our job as political groups if there's no one to back on the grounds. So if it's between just a name on the ballot and no name on the ballot, you don't even have to fundraise, you don't even have to talk to voters, you don't even have to do anything else. Give us something to work with out in these areas because we can't do it until people step up locally.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (1:06:26)
And I really have this taco dinner idea. So like now we're gonna do something. I'll have like my DMs opened, like send in like pictures of your taco dinner and like we'll post them up and like I'll collab with Annie's List so we can see these taco dinners and like tell us like some takeaways or like someone interesting that happened and like I'll get those posted up.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (1:06:42)
I'll do

a taco dinner. You want to do a zoom taco dinner next and we can invite people to like yeah.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (1:06:47)
just come chat like with bring your own tacos. I love that. I used to actually so when I first really started volunteering was actually was a force when I was 2018 but when COVID happened to get people to get online and do zooms for for phone banks. That's all we did in 2020 was call. We weren't knocking doors. I would actually like make margaritas on screen and like give recipes and I have different drinks that I would make and that's what I with moms to be in action and that's how we get our phone banks. So it's like alright, cats gonna like make a drink and then we're gonna like make calls and it was this fun thing. So maybe we'll we'll bring

that back with tacos. One taco at a time. I love that. Um but thank you so much for all of your time. like so appreciate it and something that I usually ask at beginning that I didn't ask you is what is your taco policy? What is your taco order and how religious are you about it?

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (1:07:36)
I so my my nerdy hobby i I can tell you about the i of potato on the worldwi my college thesis on the American Revolution. So I can wrap up my taco poli than to say I love a f love it when it's got mo be able to see through t of how much fat it has in

And so one of our policies is like, it's called joyeux de vie. At some point, just eat the flour tortilla. Just eat the flour tortilla and whatever you're putting on it is delicious.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (1:08:16)
That's so

funny because my husband is, he was born in California, his family is from Mexico, so he's very much on team like corn. But me, people don't realize that flour is a very Texas thing, it's a South Texas thing.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (1:08:28)
The German and French

immigrants who came in with the flower based products adapted it to the areas we have now and being able to cook on the fly on the ranches is how we get flower 13. You can't get more Texan than that.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (1:08:39)
like every

morning and like I thought I didn't know that Play-Doh like I remember going into kindergarten and we got to with Play-Doh and I was like well this Play-Doh has color. I didn't know Play-Doh was actually like a brand because I always got tortilla dough from her and so it was just that like beige and it would get gross as we're playing with it and like that was like it I didn't I was amazed by the school having colored yeah colored tortilla dough.

Isabel Longoria, Annie's List (1:09:00)
Cheese also an improvement. OK, well listen, we're going to do a taco history if you want. Oh, you know that's like I think that would be a cool episode if you ever want to do it is like the history of tacos and how it applies to immigration in Texas and like rolling it up to where we are now. All this stuff. yes.

Kat Vargas, Howdy Politics (1:09:14)
my little sub-series of like all.

I love it though, but thank you like so much for like your time for all of the work that y'all are doing. It's a lot covering a lot of ground. The state is huge and it is really important and I hope the main takeaway people have from this one is to get involved themselves but also to be a builder of bigger tables the way that you are. That is how we are going to get somewhere. It's not going be by gatekeeping. It's about everyone doing what they can and bringing others up with them. So thank you so much for setting that example and for Annie's List being

an organization that sets an example. But yeah, thank you so much. Cool.

Thanks so much for tuning in to Taco Policy. If you enjoyed listening, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast or also on YouTube so you can watch the entire episode. Make sure you subscribe there too so you don't miss what's next. We'll be back next week. In the meantime, you can follow me on social media at at howdy politics and check out our brand new show account at at Taco Policy on Instagram. Remember, this is your seat at the table for the future of Texas. This is Taco Policy